Adrien Dhondt’s 2021 Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Chetillons de Haut has turned out beautifully, adopting a slightly more giving style in the context of the vintage, due in part to its residual sugar. Disgorged in April 2025, it leaps from the glass with a deep bouquet of nashi pear, orange oil and beeswax mingled with cherry plum, Madagascar vanilla and a top note of sandalwood. Deep and layered, it is ample yet incisive, laden with tangy acidity and concluding with a long, precise finish. In a vintage that can sometimes deliver austere wines, this is a cuvée of balance. It derives from a chalky, east-facing site higher up the slope with shallow topsoil, where vines affected by le court-noué deliver lower yields, resulting in fruit of higher maturity and concentration. The wine is vinified in approximately 30% new oak.

It appears that everything Adrien Dhondt touches turns to gold, as he has also produced a brilliant set of wines from purchased fruit. Adrien Dhondt’s small négociant project, under his own name, is the result of a desire to explore the terroirs of the southern end of the Côte de Blancs. Picking small parcels from different sites almost every year, the new 2021 releases feature one lieu-dit from each village—Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger. While Dhondt does not farm these parcels, it is his team that harvests the fruit.

Winemaking follows the same approach as for the wines of Dhondt-Grellet: spontaneous fermentation with short or no settling, élevage in wood (about one-third new) for eight to nine months with regular topping up, minimal use of sulfur and disgorgement with low dosage.